Ellora Caves: Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism

Four short films looking first at the Ellora Caves sites, which was a site shared by the Buddhist, Hindu and Jaina monastics, and then appreciations of these three religions.

This is the final set of documentaries I am showing from the Madras Documentary Company, at least for now, if they publish more I will update later.

This set is on two themes which segue together in many ways. The first is looking at the rock cave temples at the Ellora site, which contain Buddhist, Hindu and Jaina caves.

Later than the Ajanta caves they seem to have developed in this order, with the Buddhist caves coming first, and probably being abandoned first also, then the Hindu caves and finally the Jaina caves.

The first two short films are concerned with the caves, tracing the development, and looking at the relief and sculpted works, besides the remains of the murals. This includes one film dedicated to the Kailash Temple, which is the largest rock-cut structure in the world, being cut out of a mountain.

The second pair of films give a fair and balanced presentation of these three religions, looking at their origins, characteristics and scope of each of them, and showing how they have influenced each other.